New Year's at the beach with my Ecua Familia :)

December 30th 2010

The water was perfect!

My host family is originally from Chone, but they have a beach house in San Clemente and I decided to take them up on their offer to go spend New year's with them. It was so wierd to be on the beach and getting wet, while back home in the States my mom and dad were trying to stay warm and avoid going outside. I really enjoyed my time at the beach, everyday while I was there we had an amazing time just going to the beach and laying down on the sand.  On our way to the beach we made a stop to say hi to the family in Chone. I met my host mom's mom, sister, and other family members. They were all nice and some came with us to the beach. That night los jovenes decided to go see this new bridge that was just opened in Bahia which happens to be the longest bridge in Ecuador now. Then we decided to drive a little more and go to Canoa, which was this very turisty beach that had a very fun and live atmosphere. We danced and then ran into a little but of trouble and had to leave.

December 31st:



Dinner with the host family :)

Once again I spent most of the day on the beach, walked around the town with my German friend Thomas and then got ready for the big night by taking a shower and a short nap. We had dinner and I helped serve the drinks. It was a very fun and laid back dinner. We talked about some of the festivities that Ecuadorians so vs. the traditions that they do. Usually on new year's eve the men dress up as women and hit the streets asking for money. They do this because they are the "widows" who are grieving because their husband, el ano viejo (the past year) is passing away. They make road blocks and demand money, we saw a couple on our way to the beach and it was great to see, brought memories of Crystal Ball back at K. Anywho we had dinner and then went to the beach to start our bonefire.



My host family, including Thomas, I love them all!



I was wishing him farewell because after this picture was taken he was tossed into the bonefire.



During dinner I was told that it was their tradition to go skinny dipping at midnight. I told them I would get into the water, but not naked. SO after we tossed el ano viejo people started to get pushed into the water so I decided to take my shirt and shorts off and run into the ocean, I thought going in without some clothes was close enough. Thomas and I were so excited that we didn't notice that NOBODY else was taking their clothes off. Well we ran in, got wet, and had a lot of fun doing it. When we got out everyone was telling me how smart we were for bringing our bathing suits with us, I then giggled a little and when they asked what was funny I told them the truth, that I did NOT bring my bathing suit. They all laughed and told us that we didn't have to take our clothes off, in fact they then told us that the whole story of having to skinny dip was a joke. Hahaha. It didn't really matter we had fun and the water was great; surprisingly it was warm!

Everyday there was a great sunset this was the first one of the new year!

Once upon a December there were six gringos...

Preface 

Well after three weeks I think its time to look back on our mistake and the great memories we had in Puerto Lopez. On December 19th 2010 a group of six students from Kalamazoo College left Quito to go to Mantaraya Lodge which is located in Puerto Lopez, however we thought it was in Manta so I bought us bus tickets to go to Manta. The day before we left we figured out that it was actually in Puerto Lopez and this was where the story begins.





Here is a map of Ecuador and you can see Quito and then Manta on the coast.

Here you can see a close up of the coast and how far Manta is from

Puerto Lopez, which isn't that far (about an hour and a half

 away I would say, shorter if you would drive).



Chapter One: Guns and Robbers

Once upon a December six gringos were on thier way to the beach but because of mix up arrived in Manta where they tired to get bus tickets to thier final destination, however the ticket sales lady told them that they had to go a block down to the other bus terminal to buy tickets to go to Puerto Lopez. She told them the options were to either take a taxi or walk down. After talking to the group we decided that after a seven hour bus ride it would be silly to take a taxi to go down a block, afterall we could see the other station from where we were. So we decided to walk down. There we were about 100 feet from the terminal when a group of guys on motorcycles drove by. Next thing I know they circle around and a red motorcycle stops right in front of us and then another two from behind...and then he fumbles a few seconds trying to get something out from his pants, and when he finally gets the gun out my heart starts to race. I can't help but think this has got to be a joke, or a bad dream, but I know its real, its so freaking real that I am immobile. I couldn't move, but I can hear that the other guys are taking bags and demanding money and cell phones from my friends. Then he looks at me and demands that I give him something, so I hand over my ipod. And then they are off again, and there we are standing looking at them ride away with 5 bookbags, 5 ipods, 4 cellphones, money, clothes, laptops, etc. A man walks over to us, he like many others saw the whole thing happen, and tells us we should probably call the police and then one of the boys asks him to call because thier cellphones had been stolen. We walk over to the station and a very nice lady tells me not to worry, that she has called the police and within a few minutes they arrive.

Chapter Two: The Labryinth of Making a Police Report

Once the police arrived I let them know of our situation and get useful information to him, I figured there was hope that they could catch these guys becuase afterall it had only happened about four minutes after thier arrival. However, even they looked at me like I was crazy for giving him a description becuase there was no chance that they would find them. Reluctantly they spoke over the radio to alert other policemen about the robbery that had just occured. I then asked to borrow thier cell phone becuase the two cell phones that we had didn't have minutes, saldo, in order to call the US Embassy. Once I got someone on the phone I told them what happened, he then told me he wanted our names and as I began one of the police officers tells me to give him the cell phone back because I was gastando su saldo. So I tell the agent to call my cell phone becuase the policeman was getting mad that I was using up his minutes (I did not hear back from him until two hours later). The policemen then informed me that in order to make a police report we had to go to the police station, and I told them that was fine. They looked at each other and then told me that the police station didn't open up until 8h00 so if we still wanted to file the report we would have to wait until it opened. So we picked a spot inside the bus terminal and waited, and waited, and then started to contemplate whether we should go back to Quito or head for the beach and go to Puerto Lopez. Meanwhile I had texts so I texts friends to call our program director and ask her to call us. Once 8h00 came around we had finally heard from the embassy and program director and they all told us the same thing, "You should have been more careful, Manta is a very dangerous place" funny thing is that NOBODY had told us this when we told them we were going there. Okay granted we probably should have looked it up, but I figured we were only going to be there for maybe 30 minutes and therefore I didn't need to look this up. Plus, my host family would have told me to be careful, like they did when I went to Guayaquil or when I go out at night to clubs because these are places where most robberies happen, but never had I heard about Manta being a bad place. However, thorughout the trip whenever we told someone about our story they were either as surprised as we were, but most of them just told us that Manta is well known for being a bad place and that there are lots of murders that happen there every month.

When we got to the police station there was a big line for people to get in, then it got to a stand still. I went inside and asked where I could make a police report and was directed to a line inside the station. Well once we told them our story we were once again given a lecture about about dangerous Manta is and how we should never walk around with valuables, the policeman that directed me to this line thought I was the guide of the group and proceed to tell me I should have known better. After explaining that I was not in fact a guide, or an Eucadorian, he still somehow held me responsible. At this point I had become the guide/translator of the group and I had retold our story multiple times that by the time we got the guy who was going to write out our report I knew who lost what, and most of everyone's birth place (State inwhich we were born, and the city of some). Once that was finally done we were ready to keep on with our adventure, but then the man told us that since of us had thier debit card, copy of his passport and Ecuadorian ID stolen we had to go to ANOTHER police station to report that. They wrote down the address, we hailed two taxis and were on our way to another police station. Once we got to the address and asked around where the police station was we were informed that the police station that we were looking for had moved about a year ago. It's new location was about 10 blocks away. So we two more taxis and off we were to this new location that we were given. We found it and had to wait another 25 inutes before being attended, during which I had to run and make copies and then come back and then go between two people to get thier signature before we could leave. 

Chapter Three: False Advertisment

This hotel that we booked was pretty pricey but we wanted to stay in a nice and safe place during our break, especially because a lot of us were bringing valuables with, so when we checked in and foundout that there was no Wi-Fi you can only imagine how upset we were. Not only that, but for those that had thier laptops, iphone, and ipad because they thought they were going to be able to use the internet they had brought them with for no good reason, had we known there was no Wi-Fi then they wouldn't have brought their valuables with and had them stolen. We were also given the impression that we could walk to the beach but that was not true, in fact to get into town we had to call a motortaxi to take us into town. There was a pool with an amazing view, too bad that they were working on the pool when we were there so there were always workers there, and each day the water just got dirttier. Also, when you look at thier brochure or picutres online you see hammicks in every room, but we did not see one hammick while we were there. Well at least there was complimentary breakfast; some fruit, bread rolls, eggs (sunnyside up or scrambled) and really good fruit juice BUT little did we know that we got charged if we wanted more bread or if we wanted a refill. Game room, haha more like a storage area that we ended up using to play some BP. We did get rooms, and they were nice and spacious. The cleaning staff came everyday and did an amazing job fixing the room up and getting us new towels when asked for. The one TV in the hotel did have cabel or a dish, which meant we were able to see a few episodes of Glee, Teen Mom, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and some Christmas movies. 

Chapter Four: Tiki bar and Colombians

The next day (Dec. 21st) we went into town to get essentials for those that had everything stolen from  them, came back and chilled by the pool. It was quite relaxing and finally felt like a vacation. Later on we went to back into town for dinner, after which we decided to go to a tiki bar and get a few drinks before heading back to the hotel. And there we were when two males come over and ask to dance. I didn't really care, it seemed like it would be fun and the one I danced with was dancing all over the place that I couldn't help but laugh. However, they seemed to get the impression that my friend Nicole and I wanted to do this more, which we in fact did not. Then out of nowhere they move closer to where we were sitting and buy the males of the group a beer and thank them for letting them dance with us. Now I didn't really care about dancing a song with them, but umm why the guys got the beer and not me made me a tad confused. Anywho, we finished our drinks and went back to the hotel and hungout for awhile and then Nicole and I went to go watch some TV and then hit the bed.

The pool side view was pretty amazing.


We finally had time to relax.

When we woke up (Dec. 22nd) we went into to town to get on the internet and finally tell our parents back in the States about the stituartion that we had landed on and then bought tickets on Reina del Camino to go back to Quito on the morning of the 27th. Later on we went back to the tiki bar and enjoyed hearing a few Bob Marley songs while swinging on himmicks and drinking some margaritas.  

Chapter Five: Mirror, Mirror on The Wall Which is The Best Beach of Them All?

On our fourth day at the beach we decided to venture out and go to the best beach according to all the locals. Los Friles was a very beautiful beach and even though there wasn't a lot of sun we still had a great time there.

The boys trying to get Nicole :)



Our guide, Roberto, was a very nice man who had been called to pick us up the first time we went into town and gave us his number so that we could call him anytime we wanted to go somewhere. He advised us to go up trail once we arrived at this beach so Nicole and I decided to take his advise. The view once we got up there was pretty spectacular.

Yup this is where we were for a week :)

Chapter Six: Our Magic Carpet/Boat and Our Journey to La Isla de Plata

Everyone that we had talked to encouraged us to try and keep our morale high and enjoy our vacation, and we did try. We thought that it would be a great idea to go to this island that is known to have amazing  animals on it, mainly the blue-footed booby. So we packed out sun block, put on our bathing suits, and headed off to the island on our magic carpet, or in this case boat. However, two of the boys were feeling under the weather and so our great adventure started off with a little bit of bad luck. We tried to get the other two from having to pay for the trip seeing as they weren't coming anymore, but it was useless. Once we had breakfast we got into a van that took us down to the shore where we boarded a boat. It was a very nice day, and after about an hour we could see that we were almost there when ... dadadadumm...our boat stopped. Yes, the engine or something, broke down and so there we were stranded in the ocean until another boat came to rescue us.

Once we got on the rescue boat we proceeded to the island, and commenced our 2 and a half hour hike. It was so sunny that I could just feel myself getting red and gross, but seeing all the blue footed bobbies was so worth it.

 

Blue-footed Booby!

The babies only have white fur.

Facts

- The female is slightly bigger than the male

- The female also has a bigger pupil 

- Once the chicks hatch the parents take care of them until they are about three months old, by that time they are able to fend for themselves

- The female usually lays more than one egg because one of them usually dies while they are young

- Both female and male have blue feet but it takes about a year for them to get them

Our journey continued after with a small lunch on the boat and a little bit of snorkiling. I attempted to, but lets just say I started to feel under the weather myself and so I stayed on the boat while the two boys went about swimming with the fishes. No worries, I will get another chance when I go to the Galapagos.

Chapter Seven: Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas With A Few Cocktails

I knew that I was going to have a GREAT time, I mean I had to, it was Christmas afterall and I was at the beach! What better way to start to day with pancakes! But, yet again the Grinch stroke again by making our pancakes probably one of the worst I've hard in awhile. Did that bring us down? NO! Nicole and I had reservations in town to get massages so went went down. We went to a lady's house where she gave us each a massage. It was sorta painful, oily, and a tad akward when she had us turn around (back side down) and didn't give us towels to cover our upper body.

Once we cleaned up we went back to the beach where we were greeted by our canadian friends, sand, and the SUN!! Ahhh it was magical. We got beach chairs by out tiki bar, ordered some drinks, got into the water, got tanned and relaxed all day :)


Chapter Eight: Agua Blanca and Fritz the Whale

This was going to be our last day so Nicole and I decided to go check out this sulfuric lagun, that nobody knew where exactly it was coming from. Roberto was feeling a little chuchaqui so he asked his friend to take us around, which was very nice of him to do. The tour included a tour around the small museum, caminata, and then afterwords we went to this cliff where you could see all the National Park which was pretty cool. On our way back to the town our motortaxi guy asked/took us to see the skeleton of this dead whale named Fritz. All in all it was a nice way to end this memorable trip. 

This is what's left of Fritz.

Chapter Nine: Are We There Yet?

Even though we started off the trip on the a bad note, and even though things kept going wrong, we always tried to keep a positive atittude and a good sense of humor. However, we were ready to go back home to Quito. We had bought our tickets three days before that would take us to Quito. Well the night before my host brother, Jonathan, called me and told me that I might run into a problem trying to find tickets to come back. I told him not to worry becuase we had bought our tickets already. So after a wonderful time at the beach we were also looking forward to getting to Quito and enjoying the rest of our time in Ecuador with the rest of the group. We get there and our happily ever after gets a stab. Our bus company,Reina del camino, was shut down by President Correa after a bus from this company had gone off a cliff and killed 39 people and injured 32 (the bus was only suppose to have 40 people onboard). Here is a link to more information to this tragedy that occurred and this is still under investigation by the government: http://www.hoy.com.ec/noticias-ecuador/reina-del-camino-no-reinicia-sus-labores-453793.html

Well here we were, ready to leave and no bus to take us. Our sorta guide, Roberto, told us to get our money back so we went to the ticket booth onlly to find out it was close and that it had been since the accident and would not be reopened anytime soon. Long story short, found tickets to go on a bus to go to Quito, about 12 hours later we get to Quitumbre which is REALLY South of Quito and have to take a taxi to our homes. Yet, we made it all to our homes, many with just the clothes they were wearing, but safe, healthy and with lot of good and bad memories to share. 

...And we all lived happily ever afer.

Fin    

Fiestas de Quito: concerts, parades, my birthday and more!!

December 2nd:



Feistas de Quito is a week long festival that celebrates the foundation of the city with concerts, bull fights, parades, and lots of partying :) Sarvie and I decided to go see this orchestra that was going to be playing in Old Quito as a way to being the festivities of Fiestas de Quito. It was really nice, we ended up racing to get there on time and got there right on time, but of course the concert didn't start for another 30 minutes (aka Ecua time). There were also dancers who were teens from the ballet company in Quito there. The environment of el centrol historico is great, and we could see the city all around us, I definetly thought it was a great event and would advise others to go see these sort of events that are actually put on almost every weekend.



The orchestra was made up of jovenes and with the backdrop
of the city =a pretty great event :)



The folkforic dancing was cool to watch along with the orchestra in the background.



December 3rd:

We decided to hangout as a group seeing as a big group was leaving the next day to go to the Amazon. Someone decided we should play a little game that started off fun but ended up being a shit show, I mean everyone by the end was eighter throwing up, taking care of someone, crying, falling, peeing in interesting places, etc.

December 4th:

I woke up with a slight chuchaqui but I was not going to miss out on this parade that was happening so I got up and went with my friend Dita to go see this parade that was suppose to last for about 6 hours. Once we got there we saw people everywhere. I couldn't see a thing so when a lady selling stools passed by I bought one, I mean everyone was standing ontop of one so I decided to do it was well. The parade was really cool and there were police and military everywhere. Dita and I decided to look for a place to have lunch so I sold my stool for half the price to this old lady to sit on and off we were. Once we started walking we noticed a cool float going by so we stopped, I had Dita's camera so when I felt someone unzipping my sweater I figured it was her trying to get her camera, but then I thought of how she wouldn't just take it but rather ask me for it (like she had been doing) so I look back and Dita is a person behind me. I look next to me and see a woman staring at me, and her hand out by my side and I instinctively slapped her hand. She looked at me out with this surprising face and when Dita asked me what happened I told her that the woman was trying to steal her camera from my sweater. She took my hand and we speed walked away. Well after that we saw more of the parade and then went back to my house and decided to watch a movie and take a nap before heading out to go see this concert in Quitumbre with my other friend Melba. Quitumbre is REALLLLLYYY South of Quito and we wanted to save on a taxi so we went on the MetroBus which took us about 45 minutes to get there, but this is where the concerts were being put on for the Fiestas de Quito. The concert went on for 3 full days, but we were going to see one band...Calle 13!! I didn't really take my camera out of fear of having it stolen. Calle 13 is a very popular group and in case you haven't heard of them here is one of  the songs we hear when we were there:

After the concert we were going to take a taxi back home, but the roads were being swarmed by people and so we decided to get on the TroleBus. Once we finally got on it we were in a fully packed bus but everyone was happy and yelling VIVA QUITO! I decided to rest my head on Melba, I was pretty tired and it was sometime after midnight. Then all of a sudden I hear "cumpleanos feliz, te deseamos a ti..." and I look up and the whole trolley is singing Happy Birthday and looking at me...it was INCREDIBLE!!!! I was pretty embarrassed but mostly surprised and well what else can I say, it was a prefect way to being a very memorable 21st birthday. THANKS MELBA AND DITA FOR MAKING IT HAPPEN!!!

December 5th:

When I woke up Hannah called me up and invited me to go see the bull fight, las corridas de torros, with her and her host sister. I had been debating whether to go or not, but they didn't have tickets and were going to go not knowing if they would find tickets so I decided to tag along and if it was meant to be we would get tickets, if not ...well then oh well. There were a lot of tickets being sold by scalpers but Hannah's host sister said they were waaayy to high, so we kept on looking until we found a good deal. We bought snacks and then went in. I didn't take a camera because I thought it was going to be waay too brutal for me to take pictures of, however there was a lot more to the corridas de torros than I thought. I learned about the clothing, the different sort of tarps, spears, and about the different stages that the bull fighter goes through before they start the final stage.

Following pictures were taken by Jacob Morden:

This was the arena, which is really close to the airport so there were many times during the bull fights when we would have a plane right above the arena, it was surreal. This is a picture of the bull fighters coming into the arena for the first time.

This pink tarp is used in the beginnig to sorta move the bull around and get a feel for him.

There were six bulls but I decided after watching three that I had seen enough. There were mistakes made by the bull fighters in two of the three that I saw, which meant that the bull didn't die like it was suppose it and instead was moving about in pain until the bull fighter got it right. I had also promised to have lunch with my best friend, Sarvie so off I was. Lunch was great, and the free gelato that I got for telling the waiter it was my cumpleanos was delicious.



I then went home and then got ready for a night out in the fosh to celebrate my birthday. We first went out to dinner where I invited the K crew and some of my new friends I've made here in Quito. It was very delicious and I even got a birthday (slice) cake. My host bro stopped by with flowers which were really pretty and we talked for a hot second before he went to a club with his friends. We went to this bar called Chupitos and had a couple drinks before hitting up a club. Overall, I had a very excited and memorable birthday, surrounded by new and old friends and lots of dancing. While at the club there were a couple shout-outs made to me, which was really cool, and what can I say...I had fun!





Oh yeaa birthday cake!!

Mis nuevas amigas!

My b-day cake that my host mom made...a week later lol ahhh gotta love Ecuadorians.
However, I say better late than never ;)



Thanksgiving in the Equator, el zoologico y el censo.

November 25th:

Hannah, one of the planners of this incredible
dinner, moi, and Jamie in the background
doing something crazy as usual.

There is no denying that I was sorta dreading Thanksgiving becuase I was not going be spending it with my family in the States, but thanks to all of the wonderful people that organized and assigned everyone something to cook, bake, or buy this was one of the most memorable Thanksgivings I've ever had...I even baked!! Granted it was hard to be focused in class becuase I was thinking about all the amazing food I was going to have, and when people asked why I wasn't eating lunch I had to explain that it was a strategdy to make room for dinner :) No worries though, I did have snacks throughout the day. I baked the pastel de tres leches the night before with Sarvie and my host mom. I am going to be real though, she did most of the doing, but Sarvie and I did help (whenever she let us that is). I had a big group project that day so I was running from one place to the other; left school around 16h15 and then got to my house around 17h15, and then started to get ready. We had instructions to come with our dish, $5 for wine, towel and swim suits (there was an option to get into the pool) and to come dressed up. Before I go on I would like to give a shout-out to Alana and her amazing family for hosting us and letting us all come over and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. Seeing as this was a special event I decided to go all out, I curled my hair, but on my boots and nice skirt and I was ready for this dinner. The food was great! I have to give it up to Hannah and Nick for thier wonderful job with the turkey...or should I say turkeies, that they cooked. However, what really did it for me was the fact that we were all together, our little K- family totally made me feel nice and at home as soon as I walked into the room.



 Friends + Food + Dancing = Unforgettable night!

 November 27th:

Due to the census that occurred Nov. 28th we had to be in the house all of Sunday so we decided to not travel and attempt to do homework. However, I've been wanting to go to the zoo so Hannah, Sarvie, and I went to the Zoologico on Saturday, which ended up being a greater mission to get to than I had anticipated. At the end we got there, only after taking a taxi, 3 buses, and then getting on a taxi-truck.

This is the biggest turtle I've ever seen!

   

Oso de anteojos.

November 28th:

The next day I was home all day due to the immobilization decree what was in effect from 7h00 to 17h00, airplanes didn't take off, public transportation wasn't operating, and there was also a Dry Act all weekend that prohibited the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages. If you violated any of these you were taken to jail and fined, the military was everywhere making sure people were not drinking, I was actually out with some friends having dinner when a policeman came in with a camera crew and asked us if we were drinking and then and we told him we were not, but he looked around the table and then when he saw our table clear of any sort of drinks left, but not without telling us (in English) "Don't drink". My host sister and I decided to make it a Harry Potter marathon, but we only got to see two of them due to the fact that my host dad wanted to see his novelas. We were finally surveyed around 15h00 by two middle schoolers. There was one question that sparked some controversey, the question asked what culture the individual associate with, and the options were white, indigenous, mestizo, black, or other. People understood this to be a question about your race and although most Eucadorians are mestizos many of them shun their indigenous or black roots so there were many who said that they were white. This has been an ongoing problem in Ecuador everytime that they do the census. Another problem is the fact that there are people that live in very remote areas of the country, and in order to get an accuarate count of the population the president was sending officials to these remote areas where sometimes they had to go by boat to these communities. Something that the upper class and top-middle class feared was saying the real number of rooms they had because they fear that Correa might want to do something like Chavez has done in Venezuela and that is to put squatters into homes that have guest rooms, or rooms that are not being used. Here is a link if you want to read a little more about what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101108/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_venezuela_expropriation.

Guayaquil: Human Rights Conference

November 18th:

Was is worth $130 to go to Guayaquil for 24 hours to be part of a human rights conference? UmmMmmmMm....YES! I woke up nice and early (5h00!) and then got on our way to the conference, which was everything I expected, but with a few surprises. The conference brought various organizations together to discuss what Plurinacionalidad meant to them; politically, socially, and economically.

Some of the topics became very heated because this term is very controverisal, many people see is as a term that is promoting regionalization and thereby making the country separate instead of unitng the country. However, I think these people are missing the REAL point of what plurinacionalidad is trying to promote, and that is:
a) respect for everyone
b) it's knowing who you are (as an Ecuadorin) and this comes into play because there are Ecuadorians who deny (or don't associate themselves with) thier roots and when asked what they are they say they say they are white, when in reality nobody really is, which is the hidden racism that appears to be in a lot of Ecuadorian minds. Now I should say that I am GENERALIZING and that this is always a tricky thing to do, but with the census coming around the corner this was a very big deal in the conference, because when people say they are white and they aren't they are not allowing an accuarate count of the population.
c) economicaly/politicaly asking for there to be more open dialogues to see what sort of reasources are needed and provide them; ex. in the rural areas of Ecuador there is a lack of education (no or bad quality of schools), daycare centers, better living conditions, etc.
d) there is a belief that this only effects indigenous communities...well its doesn't
e) There is a belief that there can/should only be one Ecuadorian culture, but this is true but you can be part of more than one culture. Ex. Just like in the States there are different cultures so is the case here in Ecuador, the people from the coast do things a little different than those of us that are in the mountains areas of Quito. Therefore one part is no more Ecuadorian than the other, and when someone moves from one region to the other they learn to mix this two cultures and it's the mix that plurinacionalidad is promoting and in a way encouraging...it shouldn't be you have to choose between the two (I mean how can you?)
f) This term is also aspiring to challenge Ecuadorians to create thier OWN image of who they are going to be, and not look to the occidental in search of this definition.

This is Jose, who spoke about the Afro-ecuadorians and hopes that they have faced, for example he talked alot about the word negro and how this was a word that the conquistadores gave people from Africa in order to exculde them from the Ecuadorian culture. He also pointed out that this was the way that Afro-ecuadorians were being acknowledged in the constitution until the new one was written in 2008.

We did have a break, which is when some of the membres of APDH decided to take me to this park where there were iguanas EVERYWHERE!! It was great!

This was the park of the iguanas :)

The iguanas were everywhere, on the side walks, trees, benches,
 etc. I couldn't get enough of of them.



Then I went on an errand with a member of APDH and then got back in time to hear the beginning of the closing panelists discourse which was Ecuador: integracion regioinal y una nueva arquitectura economica. From all the panelists Jorge Acosta was probably the panalist that mostly talked about what needs to happen as far as Ecuador's economy goes. He believes that Ecuador needed three basic things:
1) Go back to their currency, around the year 2000 Ecuador stopped using thier currency, sucres, and started to us dollars as thier currency.

Jorge Acosta, a politician during the morning and quite
the character at night.

2) Banco del sur, Jorge talked about the need of the creation of a Latin American bank that would be able to provide loans to developing countries in order for them to create better public services for thier citizens and better thier lives, which in turn be an investment for the country because then they would have more educated citizens with better health services at thier disposal.

Afterwords, they decided to take me around and it was a night full of laughs, dancing, walking, dancing, eating, and more dancing.

Guayaquil used to be very unsafe and poor, a lot has changed in the last decade, but
one of the ways they decided to deal with this poverty was by blocking off the poorest
of the poorest places from the nice places. This is a picture of where the blocking off began, which was right next to the bar that we were in watching un partido de futbol...wtf?!

This was the nice, touristy, part of Guayaquil...the part that we
are allowed to see and walk around. In fact, this was the beinning of the
hike up to this light house that was ontop, and each stair was numbered, I think
there were a little more than 450 steps that we climbed, no biggie.

Finally there!

View of Guayaquil at night, ontop of the light house, was amazing!!

November 19th:

I missed my flight, had to wait to see if I could get on the next one. I was. I went to school and then came back home and got ready to go see HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOLLOWS!!! However, afterwords I tried to get into my house and realized I had lost my keys, and of course my host parents had decided to go away for the weekend so I was locked out, and had to ask my host dad's brother if I could sleep there fore the night (he lives downstairs with his family). The next day we had to get a ladder and someone that works for him climbed it and went through a window, opened the front door, and let me in...yup it was a very crazy 48 hours.

Ahhh...its like 9th week at K + rain= Winter has arrived in Quito!

It's winter!!! What does that mean? Well let me tell you what that means for Quito...RAIN! And lots of it. I of course forgot my umbrella the other day and got drenched coming back home, but whatever...you live and learn right? ;)

Well what can I say, I had plans to go to banos which is a place about 2hrs from Quito but last minute I had to stay in Quito. What went wrong? Well I was suppose to go volunteer and they had given me some work that they really wanted me to get done, so I had to stay and finish it off (it was translating). The next day I was thinking of going and meeting up with a few friends that were there, but someone got robbed and so they were going to come back. However, I also had other motives to stay. I had 2 presentations to research information about and create a powerpoint for one of them, 1 test to study for, and about 60 pages to read. SoOo I was pretty busy, but my host family did invite me to go to this park and I decided to go along. As the week went on, and more work was piled onto my homework pile, I couldn't help but feel like I was back at K during 9th week. Here is a snapshot of my life this past week:

Monday, November 8th :

I had to do a presentation for my  genero y sociedad class, which involoved a powerpoint that I was unable to use (after having worked on it the whole weekend) becuase nobody brought their laptop to school that day. Now, this of course was something I should have planned but everytime one of us (international students) has a presentation we usually borrow someone's laptop, but of course it would be my luck that nobody brought their's that day. However, I made due and it went pretty good, my topic was about feminism and spots. The artilce I picked walked about title IX, women coaches vs. male coaches, and different takes of what the body of a woman athlete should be. After school I went to my organization for 2 hrs.

Tuesday:

I had my second presentation in my Introducion a la cultura Ecuatorian class, which had to be at least 20 minutes long. My topic was plurinacionalidad which is this sorta movement that the indigenous people lobbied a lot to have in the new Ecuadorian constitution that was created in 2008. After, I started to look over my notes for my test that I had in the next class. Now I should say that according to the syllubs its a quiz (we have 5) but they make up more than 50% of our grade, which is why I consider them tests. Anywho after that I had an hour break before going to my next class.

Wednseday:

I had a lot to read for this day, but it went pretty smoothly. After classes I went to my organization and started to talk to Amanda (she works with APDH) and she pointed out that there was a quicker way for me to get home. I took mental notes, and when I got out I decided to be adventures and see if this was a quicker way. Well, I guess I didn't hear her correctly because I apparently got on the wrong bus (it was going South and I wanted to go North). Long story short I somehow got on the Ecovia (what I usually did) but at a stop further away. Once on it I was getting pushed more and more by passangers getting on, and I notice these four guys sitting down and smiling a lot towards me, I had my headphones and kept telling myself that I should calm down, I was being paranoid. When all of a sudden one of them taps me, I take one of the headphones off and have one of the most skechiest converstations I've had here:
Man 1: no pagaste (you didn't pay)
Me: umm si pague
Man 1: pero no me pagaste (but you didn't pay me)
Me: perdon?
Man 1: me tienes que pagar para que no te robe (you need to pay me so I don't rob you)
Me:......
Man 2: Mira si no quieres que te robe tu mochila le tienes que dar dinero (look, if you don't want him to rob your bookbag you have to give him money)
Me: ....(at this point I went from confuesd to scared shitless in less than a second, and I started to think whether I had enough money to pay them off, and secondly EVERYONE was looking so I started to think whether I could count on these strangers to help me if they try and take my bag regardless if I pay them or not).
Men: ...(starring at me pretty seriously)...
Woman: (this lady was sitting right next to the guy who started all this, she starts to nod her head and then winks at me)...no les pongas atencion, estan jugando (don't pay any attention to them, they are playing with you)
Me: ...ooh....
Men: jajajajajaja
Me: (I just want to get the hell off, can't move away from them because we are seriously squished)

Around 4 minutes later I get to my stop, and of course they would get off there too. I stayed in the platform awhile, and then got off and continued my route home.

Later on that night...

I got a call from a friend and we decided to go with a few people to a bar/shwaram place to see a soccer game, I was pretty glad to be able to chill after two heavy days of school work.

Thursday:

Having already done my presentation I now have the luxury to sit in class and listen to other presentations. After my last class, art, I went home but before going home I stopped by to buy Harry Potter tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I am a HP fan, and if I could get my hands on the 7th book I would stay up all night and re-read it again before going to see it.

La Selva (part 2)

November 1st:

8h00: Desayuno

9h30: The cavernas (caves) de Jumandy was a really cool experience, however there were a lot of tourists inside which is not something I had expected. We started off by meetin our guide, who showed us a lot of plants and had us tasts some. Then we went inside the cave which involved stepping on a lot of slippery rocks and trying to see in the dark. We all got into the water and then kept on going until there was a part where the water had risen becuase of the heavy rain that came down the night before so we had to swim across. Now it should be noted that we were warned that this might happen, which is why we didn't bring our cameras, and I had to get the smallest size boots that the hostal had, but I guess they were still too big becuase while swimming across...they fell :( I finished the rest of this hike with my socks, and of course fell right before we got out and had a pretty noticable bruse. Once we got out of the cave we were surprised to find a pool with huge slides, and we of course got on them :)

12h30: We went back to the hostal (still no power) and had lunch.

15h00: Arrived at la comunidad de los Wuayra Churis which was this Quichua community and saw a few traditional dances. Dita volunteered to be in one that was suppose to be this dance that the groom and bride do when they get married. It was pretty cool.

Before the dancing began they drew on our faces to welcome us into their community.

The first dance was a salutation to the sun.

Here comes the bride...dum dum dadda!



18h00: Went back to the hostal, had dinner and then went on this night hike through the Amazon in search of nocturnal animals. We didn't really see much, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.



This is a common size leaf that you will find in the Amazon.


November 2nd:

8h00: Breakfast

9h00: Arrived at Proyecto de Turismo Comunitario "Petroglifos" in Cotundo

First petroglifo that we saw called “Yachak Rumi (Shaman).”

Petroglifo  "Rimak Rumi”

This is the pamphlet that told us all the images that we were supposed to be able to see.

Last petroglifo that we saw, the guide pointed out that it has one big shape (a frog) and
then other shapes of animals, like two snails at the top.

 



Group picture of the K students + Noah; new friend we made
that's here via the International Program for Service
Learning (IPSL) + a Dugadito.



11h00: Arrived at the hostal and had some down time. At first I was confused why we didn't get on the bus and go back, but I actually enjoyed this time a lot. We decided to do a little bit of yoga, Hannah was our instructor, afterwords we got into the pool and then headed to our cabins for a quick shower. Then we started to pack, had lunch, came back and got on the bus to head back to good old Quito :)